Sister Iku
by Sheo Darren
Summary: In which the good Catholic nun Sister Kobayashi Ikuko discovers that she is the reincarnation of the lewdest of all lewdmarines, I-19. Whatever is she to do?
1. Chapter 1

It is a classified fact that the Ship-Girls are the souls of World War Two warships reborn into the bodies of human girls. The reason for this remains unknown and is the subject of much discussion among the scientific, military, and religious communities.

Upon realizing this pattern, the military forces of the world frantically canvassed the civilian population in search of these invaluable individuals who stood as the only hope of the human race against the unending onslaught of the Abyssals.

For some of the ship-girls, the transition from civilian life to military service was jarring, to say the least. The hardest hit were the numerous destroyers, mostly preteens with a sprinkling of teenagers. Their commanders did their best to cushion the shock of combat on these draftees, and for the most part they successfully acclimatized.

For other ship-girls, it was like coming home after a forty year exodus into the desert with only manna and quail on the menu. They not only responded to the beat to quarters with pennants flying, but dove headfirst into the water and thrived in the battlefield.

And for one girl in particular? The Sniper of the Seas?

One wouldn't believe where the JMSDF found I-19. Or who and what she had been reincarnated into.

.

 **201X**

 _Our Lady of Imari Abbey_

Imari City, Saga Prefecture, Japan

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"Sister Kobayashi? May I have a moment of your time?"

"Yes, Reverend Mother-sama."

The white-veiled novice sister followed her Mother Superior to the latter's office. Upon noticing the two men dressed in crisp white military uniforms, she bowed. "Oh, good evening, gentlemen."

"Good evening, Sister-san, Reverend Mother-sama," replied the older, distinguished-looking gentleman. "I'm Admiral Goto and this is my aide Lt. Sean Matsuda." The Admiral gestured to his companion. "Forgive us for imposing on your time, but you are Kobayashi Ikuko-san, correct?"

Sister Kobayashi chuckled. "Such renown makes me happy. I'm Ikuko Kobayashi," she confirmed.

"A pleasure to meet you, Sister Kobayashi."

"Yes," she added with an impish smirk. "Calling me 'Iku~' is fine, too, ikukuku~"

The lewd pun got Admiral Goto to blink and brought a blush to Lt. Matsuda's face.

"Sister Kobayashi," chided the amused Abbess, who was fully in the know about her nun-in-training's well-hidden and usually-suppressed humor.

"I apologize, Reverend Mother-sama, Admiral-san, Lieutenant-san," the smiling sister contritely apologized. "I couldn't help it."

Admiral Goto cleared his throat. "No offense taken, Sister Iku-san." He noticed that the young nun seemed pleased to hear someone using her... saucy sobriquet. "We came here to ask for your help."

"How can this humble servant of the Lord help you?"

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x=x=x

 **Sister Iku**

.

 **Disclaimer:** Kantai Collection belongs to Kadokawa Games and DMM. Please support the official release.

x=x=x

 **part 01**

"How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" - Luke 2:49

x-x-x

One long-winded explanation later...

"So I'm the reincarnation of a World War II submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy?"

"Essentially, yes," Admiral Goto summarized.

Sister Kobayashi turned to her superior with a serious expression on her cherub face. She asked:

"Reverend Mother-sama? If what they're saying is true... is my being a reincarnation grounds for charges of heresy?"

"That is a possibility," the Abbess agreed. "Pope Benedict the Sith is much stricter than his predecessor when it comes to enforcing doctrine."

"Nowadays everybody expects the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," Sister Kobayashi recalled.

"Their chief weapon is no longer surprising due to overuse, and the lack of faith is disturbing…"

Something bugged Lt. Matsuda. "Don't you mean 'Benedict the Sixth'?" he pointed out to the nuns.

"I said what I said," the Abbess said to the confused officer.

"I would think that the Abyssals are a greater concern than the Pope," Admiral Goto argued.

"Yes, and to lighten the bleak mood Sister Kobayashi would have made a joke about how you're trying to convince her that she's the anthropomorphic second coming of a long, hard tube filled with seamen waiting to shoot her explosive load into the sterns of attractive targets when they least expect it," replied the straight-faced Abbess.

Her junior and her guests gaped.

"Reverend Mother-sama!"

The pink-faced Sister Kobayashi found herself in the awkward position of having to scold her superior for making a ribald joke. Normally she was the one who needed a dressing down during the occasions that her natural irreverence breached the prim and proper expression that she maintained. She'd never expected the Abbess to reveal such a… a lewd side. And to strangers and guests, at that!

"What?" The unrepentant Mother Superior shrugged. "I'm a prune, not a prude."

"Was that a US Marine joke?" Admiral Goto dared to ask.

"My ex-boyfriend is a member of US Navy. We broke up because we both wanted to take holy orders. Father Costello's a Navy chaplain now. We keep in touch," the Abbess revealed.

To Lt. Matsuda's surprise, his boss nodded. "That explains so much," Admiral Goto realized.

"Sister Kobayashi," the Abbess advised. "The decision remains yours. However, if I were you, I would go with these fine young men."

Admiral Goto looked slighted by that remark. He didn't consider himself to be old and didn't feel old. But flag rank did require the experience and maturity that only came with age and/or massive trauma.

"But Reverend Mother-sama, I've just completed my postulancy. I'm still in the first month of my novitiate," worried Sister Kobayashi.

She had approached the Abbey last year to petition for nunhood. Her successful completion of the twelve-month postulancy period made her the youngest novice nun in all of Japan (and possibly the world) in modern times, a fact she was secretly proud of.

"You are young," the Abbess replied. "You should see the world first before committing on a course in life."

"I wish to serve the Lord with all my heart and soul."

"And perhaps you will serve Him best alongside these brave men."

"But I don't want to fight!" Tears welled within Sister Kobayashi's brown eyes. "I don't want to hurt anyone or to… to kill anyone! Even if they are Abyssals!" She buried her face in her palms. "No one deserves to lose their life!"

The Abbess smiled. She expected such fervor from the gentle girl.

"Sister Kobayashi. Would you accompany me in prayer?"

"Huh? Ah, yes, Reverend Mother-sama..."

"Excuse us for a moment," the Abbess told their guests before leading Sister Kobayashi to the side.

The two nuns -representatives of two separate generations and products of different upbringings who had been brought together by faith and Fate- knelt side by side.

"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

 _Lord God, our power evermore, whose arm doth reach the ocean floor, dive with our men beneath the sea; traverse the depths protectively. O hear us when we pray, and keep Them safe from peril in the deep. Amen._

After crossing herself, Sister Kobayashi looked to the Abbess. "I've never heard of that prayer before," she wondered.

"It is a hymn called Eternal Father, Strong To Serve. It's a traditional hymn of mariners that was inspired by Psalm 107, verses 23-26."

"Oh." She racked her memory for the appropriate verses, only for the Abbess to recite the exact lines.

 _They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;_

 _These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep._

 _For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof._

 _They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble._

"Did your ex-boyfriend teach it to you?" Sister Kobayashi asked.

The Abbess chuckled. "Father Costello was such a nice young lad," she reminisced.

"But why didn't you two marry? Why did you become a nun?"

"The Lord our God works in mysterious ways, Sister Kobayashi. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods," quoted the Abbess.

Now this chapter and verse the Sister did remember. It was the Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25.

"And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one…" Sister Kobayashi's throat hitched. "To every man according to his several ability..."

"Sister Iku."

The Abbess had always used her surname of Kobayashi when addressing her. This was the first time her Mother Superior used her bawdy nickname.

"The Lord our God gave you those talents for a reason," said the grandmotherly woman who had grown gray in the service of their Lord. "It would be a waste if you hid here at Our Lady of Imari when you could be out there helping other people."

Helping…

A year ago, Ikuko Kobayashi arrived at Our Lady of Imari Abbey in search of respite from strange visions where she prowled hostile waters like a shark scenting blood and dragged unsuspecting victims kicking and screaming to the bottom of the graveyard sea, dark dreams that always ended in a series of eardrum-popping eruptions that shattered every bone in her body and drove the silently screaming Ikuko sinking into the abyssal plain where she rotted alongside her victims for the rest of all time.

The nuns welcomed the tormented Ikuko into their warm abode. They took her in without question. They taught her to cope with her improper urges and gently rebuked her antics during the times when temptation felt so strong, too strong for her to handle by herself. They stayed by her side, prayed for her, prayed alongside her, prayed for those trapped in her nightmares. And their prayers were answered as Ikuko found peace from those terrible dreams in her new identity as Sister Kobayashi.

Now, other people were asking Sister Kobayashi to help them. She was being given the chance to help other people just as she had been helped in the past.

"As Saint Paul told the Romans," the Abbess said. "Do not be overcome by evil-"

"-but overcome evil with good," agreed the reincarnation of the Type B1 submarine I- _19_ , who now accepted her identity and history. "Thank you, Reverend Mother-sama."

"You're welcome, Sister Iku."

 _Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord._

"Now, what say you to us embarrassing that nice Lieutenant some more?" quietly proposed the Abbess in a conspiratorial chuckle.

"I would like that, Reverend Mother-sama," giggled Sister Iku.

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to be continued / itutuloy / つづく

x=x=x

 **Author's Notes**

This is my first full-fledged short story. It is inspired by a discussion on the SpaceBattles forums covering the civilian lives that ship-girls might have led before they became _kanmusu_. I decided to go for Hard Mode and made Iku a nun, and it snowballed from there.

Sister Iku's surname of **Kobayashi** is derived from her last commanding officer, **LCdr.** **Shigeo Kobayashi** , who was lost with the entire crew of I- _19_ when she was sunk by USS _Radford_ on 25 November 1943. I picked Kobayashi instead of **Takakazu Kinashi** , the "sniper of the seas" captain who sank the carrier USS _Wasp_ and the destroyer USS _O'Brien_ and damaged the battleship USS _North Carolina_ with a single torpedo spread for a very important reason: Kinashi is the same captain who ordered his men to machine gun the survivors of the American freighter _William K. Vanderbilt_ , so if I wanted to justify Sister Iku's different personality, a different captain was called for.

In my original version, her surname was Iwagami, after Cpt. Hidetoshi Iwagami who also died aboard her. I mistook him as the CO of I- _19_ , when in fact LCdr. Kobayashi is her captain and Cpt. Iwagami is his boss as the leader of ComSubDiv 2.

Admiral Goto is based off the character of the same name in the Kant-O-Celle Quest run by Planefag. Lieutenant Sean Matsuda is similarly based off a character in The Greatest Generation, originally written by Sasahara17 and recently re-released as The Greatest Generation RESTARTED.

Guess what famous Forties and Fifties comedy duo the Abbess & Fr. Costello were based off? If you guessed Abbot and Costello, congratulations!


	2. Chapter 2

**Several Days Later**

JMSDF Fleet Headquarters

Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

.

"BUUURNIIING LOOOVE~"

First impressions last. And when your first impression of a fellow ship-girl is a glorified battlecruiser in a rather... ahem, 'brief' miko outfit trying to 'cross the D' (or was it 'T'? Sister Iku was still fitting her pretty blue-haired head around naval terms) of her superior officer...

Wrapped around the upper torso of the hapless Yokosuka Admiral, the ever-ebullient Kongou began lathering kisses upon her objecting object of affection.

"Chuu! Chuu!"

Sister Iku crossed herself before clasping her hands together. "Oh, Lord," she prayed to the ceiling. "Please forgive my Admiral for lusting after the miko-san, for he does not know what he is doing."

"You have it completely backwards, Sister-san!" The Admiral tried to pry the overly affectionate Kongou off him to no avail. "A little help here!"

"Please save yourself for your wedding," she advised. "Abstinence is not just good for the soul. It's also good for the body."

"Not that kind of help! Get her off me!"

"Unfortunately, Admiral-san, Kongou-san is Shinto, not Christian. I would not presume to dictate to a follower of a different religion, more so to a priestess of said religion. That would be unprofessional and rude," Sister Iku pointed out.

"How can you be politically correct at a time like this?"

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x=x=x

 **SISTER IKU**

 **Disclaimer:** Kantai Collection belongs to Kadokawa Games and DMM. Please support the official release.

.

 **part 02**

"And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." - John 10:16

x=x=x

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After prying himself free of Kongou's clutches, the Admiral presented his newest ship-girl with her service uniform.

"What's that?" squeaked the beet red Sister Iku.

"It's a swimsuit, the standard issue outfit for our submarines," replied the Admiral.

"But it's lewd."

The Admiral did a double take. So did Kongou.

"Pardon me?" the former asked.

"WHAT?" went the latter.

"It clings to the wearer's body and shows off her limbs." Sister Iku hugged her arms, which were fully covered by long sleeves that reached down to her wrists. Her shoes shuffled nervously beneath the long skirt of her habit, which concealed her body. "It's indecent."

Her refusal netted an exchange of baffled glances between the Admiral, Kongou, and the dark blue mizugi labeled I-19.

"Surely you've worn a swimsuit before?" asked the Admiral.

"No," Sister Iku averred.

"Not even during junior high school? This is a junior high school swimsuit, you know. You did go to junior high?"

The Admiral wisely did not bring up the fact that said swimwear had been highly sexualized over the years. No sense in discouraging Sister Iku, who was apparently the wallflower type of nun.

"My Catholic school doesn't have a swimming pool," she replied. "Neither does the Our Lady of Imari Abbey."

"Then how do you know how to **swim**?" the Admiral had to ask.

"A wealthy churchgoer donated an expensive swim spa to the Abbey. He said he wanted to give us a way to relax and exercise in between our good work. Reverend Mother-sama couldn't find it in her heart to refuse him. She allowed us to use it so long as we didn't abuse the privilege. The spa has really strong water jets that let you exercise by swimming against their flow..."

A long beat of silence later, the Admiral put two and two together. "So... you've never worn a swimsuit, but you know how to swim thanks to a swim spa... you swim naked?"

Sister Iku's glowing face could have been mistaken for a volcano lamp. "Admiral-san!" she squeaked. "Kuuuhhh! How cheeky!"

"Yooowww!" went the Admiral as Kongou pinched his cheeks.

"I told you to keep your eyes on me!" whined the battlecruiser who claimed to be a fast battleship.

The Admiral flailed about. His left hand seized something round, warm, and soft.

"Kuh!" yelped Sister Iku. "Is that the one targeting me?"

Kongou's fingers squeezed. "Admiral, just what are you doing?!"

"Sorry! My bad!" he frantically apologized.

"Sister Iku... is sinking?"

"Don't sound so misleading!"

Eventually the Admiral was persuaded to pry his hand off Sister Iku's, ah, ballast tank. He failed to convince Kongou to release his face, though the battlecruiser did decrease the pressure.

"Just try it on," he groaned in what he hoped was Sister Iku's direction, but this time keeping his hands to himself. "Please."

"V-v-very well..."

The timid Sister Iku pinched the right-side strap of the sukumizu and pried it from the Admiral's gloved fingers.

"Don't peek," she warned.

"He won't," Kongou assured the hesitant nun in a singsong voice while clamping her hands upon the Admiral's eyes.

"Owowow!" He flailed in panic and a little bit of pain. "Kongou! You're going to claw my eyeballs out!"

"I'll do even better," she promised him, "So don't look away!"

"How can I look if you're covering my eyes in the first place?"

A quarter of an hour later, Sister Iku tiptoed out of the Admiral's bathroom. "W-w-well? H-h-how do I look?" she mumbled.

"Kongou?" asked the Admiral.

"GOOD JOB!" answered the battlecruiser.

"I meant to ask you to take your hands off my eyes," her commander clarified.

"No~"

Left with no other choice, the Admiral reached around him and tickled Kongou's exposed armpits.

"Kyahahaha! Aaadmiiiraaal!"

Kongou was forced to defend her sensitive spots, the one true erogenous zone known to her class that they shared with a certain Hakurei miko.

The swimsuit turned out to be a perfect fit on the blushing Sister Iku. It revealed and emphasized the full figure that had been hiding underneath her loose black tunic.

"Please don't stare," she pleaded with her Admiral.

Of course he stared at her, but for a very different reason than the milky white limbs, curvy figure, and lolling ballast tanks currently on display.

"Why are you still wearing your veil?" he asked while pointing at the white headgear that completely clashed with her sukumizu.

"I feel strange if I don't have it on," she admitted while fidgeting nervously.

"But you'll lose it if you dive underwater."

"I'll just make sure to tie it on..."

Her insistence on retaining her modest headgear piqued the Admiral's interest. Suspecting something fishy behind her reluctance, he snagged Sister Iku's veil.

"Ah!"

"So you tie your hair under this," said the Admiral as he studied the bun of blue hair atop her head. Not exactly the secret he expected to uncover.

"Admiral-san! What are you doing…"

Sister Iku trailed off. Her brown eyes glazed. Her eyelids drooped.

"Hmmm?"

To the Admiral and Kongou's alarm, the nun abruptly dropped onto her knees.

"Sister Iku! What's wrong?"

Her hands shot upward. Deft fingers undid her bun and freed her hair. A flick of her wrists sent her mane flying towards the ceiling. Her hands continued working their magic. By the time her hair came down, the blue mass had been divided and secured into three ponytails using white ribbons and what appeared to be small metal submarine parts.

Her eyelids fluttered open. The round black pupils of her red-brown eyes had taken on the very unnatural shape of five-pointed stars.

The blush drained from her face. Her expression, body language, and gaze shifted from modest and embarrassed to WEEETTT and flaunting it.

"I'm the submarine I-19," she tittered in a singsong voice. "Yes, Iku~!"

The Admiral closed his disbelieving black eyes, counted to ten, and opened them, expecting to see this hallucination dismissed and Sister Iku returned to her normal blushing self.

Nope. She was still undulating like a plate of Jell-O held by a sleep-deprived captain who was running on navy DESS- err, navy death coffee.

"Did she just transform?" he asked Kongou in all seriousness.

His likewise befuddled secretary ship found herself at an uncharacteristic loss for words.

"Admiral~" cooed the sub.

"Ah? Yes, Sister Iku? What is it?"

Her pink tongue ran across her lips, wetting them, whetting her already immense appetite.

"You're not allowed to look away from Iku!"

Her lush body wriggled like live bait that made a fishing hook such a tempting bite for many a game fish.

"Did you think you'd back me into a corner?"

Literally starry eyes glittered.

"It gets me fired up instead!" Iku moaned out.

"What have I done?" The horrified Admiral clutched his head. "I've turned Sister Iku into a nymphomaniac!"

Seeing her commander in despair spurred Kongou into action. "Sister-san," she called out. "That's enough! I will be the one who wins over the Admiral's heart!"

Iku glanced at the battlecruiser almost lazily. Her lips form a knowing smirk.

"Sea Lion," she murmured.

Kongou lurched as if she had been torpedoed twice in her bow. "W-w-what," she stammered. "H-h-how?"

"Sea Lion, Sea Lion, Sea Lion~"

"Aah! Admiral~!"

The repeated mention of the _Balao_ class submarine brought the battlecruiser down to her trembling hands and shaking knees.

"Oh," Kongou whispered. "Seems like my exertions are catching up to me…"

Sister Iku let out a titter at having added another fast battleship to her killsheet. She padded towards the Admiral like a hungry cat regarding a bowl of cream, her ponytails swishing and certain parts of her swelling like the tides.

"Admiral Goto is going to kill me," bemoaned her target, who hadn't noticed her approach.

At her wit's end, Kongou looked up to the ceiling for a sign. "Kami-sama! What should I do?" she begged any deity who might be listening in on her.

Outside, the sky shed its mantle of clouds. A ray of sunshine shone through the window. The light fell upon the veil that the Admiral had taken off Iku.

Kongou felt like her doused boilers had been reignited by the divine inspiration. "You think I'm finished?" she spoke up. "Think again!"

She lunged for the abandoned headgear. Snagging it from the floor, Kongou slam-dunked the nice hat back atop of the triple-tailed girl's head.

"BUUURNIIING VEEEIIILLL!"

"Ehehe. What's that equipment supposed to do…"

The shifting submarine stopped swaying. She squinted at Kongou, who blockaded the path to their beleaguered Admiral.

"Huh? What is it, miko-san?"

No longer did her tone drip innuendo with every syllable. Her healthy body also ceased its erotic oscillations. Instead she adopted a prim and proper kneeling posture as if she was about to pray.

"Sister-san?" asked the wary Kongou, still not sure if her heaven-inspired tactic worked.

"Yes, miko-san? How can I help you?"

"What do you think about showing off your super hot body to the Admiral while talking in a lascivious tone of voice?"

The question mortified Sister Iku. "What? No! Never! That's a mortal sin!" She clasped her hands together and began praying fervently. "Oh, Lord, please protect me against such temptations…"

The Admiral let out the breath he had been holding in. "She's back to normal," he sighed in relief.

"The battle results are in!" Kongou flicked an errant lock of hair away from her face. She produced two cups of Earl Grey tea to celebrate her victory. "Did you see my exploits?"

"Yes, thank you, Kongou, well done. Now stop aping Mami Tomoe. You know how that ended."

While Kongou handed a cuppa to Sister Iku to calm her down and mend fences, the Admiral considered the recent weirdness with a concerned eye.

"I didn't know our sukumizu were so terrifying," he thought aloud.

"Terrifying?" Sister Iku saw her costume under a new and disconcerting light.

"Maybe that explains why the other subs are so weird," the thick-headed Admiral continued to muse.

"Other subs? Weird?"

The door opened.

"Good day, Admiral. We heard there was a new submarine, so we came to pay our respects."

The utterly rigid Sister Iku slowly brought her creaking hull around to scope out the terror from the deep.

"Good day. I'm I-401. Just call me Shioi."

"I'm I-168. Just call me Imuya! Nice to meet you!"

"Guten Tag. I'm I-8. Please call me Hacchi."

"Hello! I-58 here! You can call me Goya, decchi!"

"Welcome to Yokosuka, I-19!" they greeted.

The nun's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Weird girls in terrifying swimsuits!" Sister Iku exclaimed.

"Excuse us?" Shioi asked.

"(What?)" Hacchi said in German.

"Why does she have a veil on her head?" Imuya thought aloud.

"Take that silly thing off, decchi," Goya suggested.

Sister Iku backpedaled away from the lewdmarines. "Someone save me!" she begged.

"Kongou," sighed the Admiral.

"Roger! BURNING-"

From then on, Sister Iku always wore her habit over her swimsuit. Any attempts to divest her of the garments merited a barrage of 14-inch shells.

On the flip side, U-511 was never brainwashed into Ro-500. And thus the JMSDF never fought there in Germany, having narrowly avoided the 'YuuGate' casus belli that would have driven U-511's Admiral, one Abel Dessler, into such rage that his face would go blue from lack of oxygen as he launched a war to avenge his darling Fünf Elf. That scenario ends in Yamato actually getting deployed and Shioi sent to America carrying the designs for a secret weapon that could turn the tide of the war.

Oh, and Maru-yu got forgotten, haha.

.

to be continued / itutuloy / つづく


End file.
